Regan Summers on Supernatural, Sleepy Hollow and Buffy [Guest Post & Giveaway]

There are so many good paranormal, fantasy, and sci fi shows on TV right now. Seriously, I could take a week and do nothing but watch good TV, and I still probably wouldn’t be caught up. Series are tough to manage. There have to be major arcs, but they can’t be resolved immediately or easily lest they feel contrived. Not to mention the story would be concluded, which networks seem loath to do even when the story should be concluded sometimes. So the Big Story has to come more slowly. There have to be setbacks, red herrings, complications, revelations, betrayals. Plus the character idiosyncrasies, the inside jokes, the deep-rooted desires that the characters can’t admit to. Only we, with our faces pressed to the fourth wall, know.

Supernatural mastered the series format. While its duration is up for argument, it’s got everything a good series needs. You’ve got major arcs and, tucked beneath them, are the characters’ development. Their own journeys, which sometimes put them at odds. You’re demon hunters? Great, now one of you is a demon. Discuss, and don’t forget the pie.

I like series that mesh the monster (or alien, or mysterious double agent)-of-the-week with raw, sometimes heart-wrenching growth. And I love setbacks* and massive conflicts. The characters can save the world, but at the expense of their relationship**. Sleepy Hollow surprised me as a show, not because it was entertaining. I knew from the first preview of the Colonial headless horseman with an automatic rifle that I was going to be entertained, but it’s the relationship between Abbie and Ichabod that hooked me***. At first they looked after each other because that’s the kind of people they are – protectors. But they quickly became partners. And now they’re fascinating platonic soul mates that I adore and root for like crazy.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, sacrifice! So, we’re invested. We’re in. We’re hooked. And then the series gets gutsy and something crazy happens, and Our Favorite Character changes. They might look the same, but they’re not. Remember the episode “Anne” that opened Buffy, season three? Buffy was going by her middle name, and wearing a sherbet-colored polyester uniform, and taking crap from people. And there were no clever one-liners. And no Scoobies. And no happiness to be found on the face of the Earth. Remember how you kind of wanted to turn it off twenty minutes in, before you’d even gotten to that long commercial break****, after which the episode would surely resolve? REMEMBER THAT?

But you didn’t. Why not?

I think that the human mind requires that we read to the end of the story, or to An End at least. I think our nature requires some closure. That’s why we continue searching and scanning and surveying, why loose ends wake us up at night and feel like they’re grating on our insides. If I’ve ever read a character that made me feel something, I’ll wait a long time or wade through some far-out stuff to find out where she ends up. And I know I’m not alone. There were millions of people who could no longer confidently say that Lost was anything beyond a series of improv scenes written on Post-It notes that were filmed out of sequence who still had to watch the finale. They had to. They needed the story, and stories need endings.

*Please don’t quote me on that when I’m whining about my favorite people not taking necessary steps toward my happiness. I mean theirs. Their happiness.

**I consider it a “failed relationship” when someone offers themselves up as a sacrifice with the serious possibility that it’s going to be final.

***And I don’t even ship them!

****Because this was before DVRs, which was practically medieval. Remember when you were living in a prehistoric cave, watching Buffy on a low-def tube TV, as it aired?

ABOUT REGAN SUMMERS
Regan Summers is the author of the romantic urban fantasy Night Runner series. As a native Alaskan, she’s used to long, cold nights but thinks they’re better with a helping of sexy vampires. Don’t Bite the Messenger, the first in the series, was a finalist for the 2013 EPIC eBook Awards in the paranormal category. Falling from the Light, available now, is the conclusion that had to be written.
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ABOUT FALLING FROM THE LIGHT

Phoenix, AZ

All Sydney Kildare wants is a minute in the slow lane, some time to decide where she’s going with her vampire lover, Malcolm Kelly. But after sitting out the last battle, the powerful Master Bronson is giving orders again, and he isn’t above blackmailing his former courier to get what he wants.

With Mal sent to track a vicious killer, Syd is forced to infiltrate a pharmaceutical company responsible for a drug that turns vampires into real monsters. She’s unprepared and alone, but fiercely determined. If her investigation doesn’t satisfy the Master, Malcolm will pay the price. A wrong turn throws her into the middle of a vampire power play. Caught between twisting forces, with their freedom at stake, she’ll have to decide what’s more important: love, power or revenge. But choosing what feels right might turn out all wrong.

Buy it here: AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | KOBO

GIVEAWAY

Want to try one of Regan’s books? Good! We have your choice of any of the Night Runner novels up for grabs. One VBC reader will win. Contest is open internationally, and the prize will be an e-book. Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.

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